Metals, mining and alloy producers have been scenario-planning in response to the novel coronavirus. The South African government appears to have just removed all but one option.

President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered the country’s mineral resources industry to shut underground mines and furnaces from Thursday March 26, unless they can be operated remotely.
The shutdown will last for three weeks and is designed to protect South Africans from the spread of the virus. Further details are to be revealed on Tuesday March 24, but mining was not named as an essential industry, and a reprieve therefore looks unlikely.

Aside from China - which forced the complete shutdown of Wuhan province when it emerged as the epicenter of the virus - other governments have been less draconian, leaving the decision of whether or not to operate in the...

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